


The Very Bad No Good Day (that turned out alright in the end)

by Huggle



Category: Supernatural
Genre: AU, Cheating, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-25
Updated: 2017-10-25
Packaged: 2019-01-22 20:37:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12490352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Huggle/pseuds/Huggle
Summary: Cas comes home early from work.  He's a little perturbed by the strange guy loitering outside his front door.But Dean has a good reason to be there; unfortunately that reason is going to be bad news for Cas.





	The Very Bad No Good Day (that turned out alright in the end)

**Author's Note:**

> Nib xx

“Darling, come on!”

Cas grits his teeth at that tone, that tone Bal always uses when they’re fighting; the tone that says the only reason they _are_ fighting is because Cas is being completely unreasonable.

But Bal will forgive him if he comes around.

Cas isn’t coming around, not this time. He pauses, midway between the closet and his bed, where his suitcase is lying open, and is suddenly aghast when he thinks of the number of times he did come around.

That he let Bal convince him. Not just that coming around was the _reasonable_ (Cas is starting to hate that word) thing to do, but that it was also the adult thing to do since, really, he was the one at fault.

Is he the one at fault this time? Did he do something to deserve coming home and finding Bal in their bed with another man?

Yes, he’d been working more hours of late. It’s the start of winter, and that means more people needing medical care and admission. He doesn’t work a nine to five job, and Bal had no problem with that when Cas’s pay check paid for the rent on this apartment. When it paid for Bal’s car. 

When it bailed out his brother’s business and, later, his brother.

But, still, he remembered Bal's subtle hints that Cas wasn’t attentive enough. And he realised then that Bal would only think him attentive enough when all his attention was on him. All of it, all the time.

Bal wanted everything, with no negotiation, no consequences.

So he probably did think Cas was being unreasonable. Because his meal ticket was about to walk out of of the door.

Cas crammed his clothes into the case, shut the lid over and zipped it. He took one last look around the room. Everything else here was Bal’s.

He realised that though this apartment was his, there was very little in it that actually belonged to him.

Bal had put his stamp on every room, with his trademark untidiness, but also pictures of him here, there, magazine covers of his antics at home and overseas before his parents had come to their senses and cut him off.

But, unless someone came in here and opened up the closet, and saw a second set of clothes, Cas saw they would never know someone else lived here.

He picked up the case and started for the door.

Bal was standing there, arms folded, leaning against the wall. He didn’t look so laissez-faire now; as Cas approached, he turned sullen, and Cas remembered that he had a sharp tongue in his head.

He looked about to use it, when raised voices came from the bathroom.

For a moment, Cas had forgotten there were other people there, in his...in the apartment.

The guy Bal had been cheating on him with, and the guy’s partner.

Cas still didn’t know the guy’s name. Coming up the stairs, to find him loitering outside his door, had given him a start. The guy had flashed some kind of official I.D at him, and all Cas had made out was ‘F.B.I’ but the guy had hastily put it away again, muttering something about ‘this not being a fed thing’.

And then he had asked Cas if he could come inside, but that he thought Cas might be in for a bit of a shock.

Numb, Cas had unlocked the door. He had a bag of groceries from Caraval’s, Bal’s favourite deli, and had taken advantage of a quiet period at the hospital to beg off early, thinking he’d surprise his boyfriend.

Thinking that Bal deserved it.

Looking back, it was undeniably stupid of him to let a stranger in based on a split second glimpse of what might have been official I.D or something out of a kid’s playset, but if he hadn’t….

If he’d hesitated, Cas was use Bal would have come up with some reasonable explanation as to why there was a strange man in the apartment, and why there was absolutely nothing for Cas to worry himself about.

And Cas knew he’d believe him.

The bathroom door swung open, whacking the wall and leaving a handle shaped dent. The guy Bal had been _entertaining_ stormed out first.

“You know, Dean,” he snapped, “I never promised you exclusivity.”

The _federal agent_...Dean...was on his heels. “Well pardon fucking me for taking it for granted than once we got together, you wouldn’t be sleeping around. I didn’t think we needed a negotiation on that.”

Cas wanted to look away; this was raw and private, but then he realised it wasn’t private at all. It had stopped being private when both this man, and Bal, had chosen this place to betray both he and Dean.

“Maybe,” the man said, “I just wanted to fuck a fed. Get the suit out of the suit. So, been there, now. Done that.”

He leered at Dean, and Cas felt himself cringe with embarrassment on Dean’s behalf.

The man smiled at Bal, made a ‘call me’ gesture, and then sauntered out of the apartment as if he hadn’t just brought Cas’s life crashing down in a broken heap.

Dean stared after him, face stony, and Cas figured he’d go soon as well.

They might as well go together; Cas certainly had no reason to stay. He turned back towards the door, and Bal stepped into the middle of the hall.

“Cas, it was one time, sweetie. You know how lonely I’ve been with you away all those hours. You really can’t blame me for this, Cas. Come on. Put your suitcase back, sit down, and we’ll talk about this.’

_I’ll let you persuade me to forgive you._. 

It was there, in his tone, his eyes, the way he was projecting such false consideration. 

Cas tightened his grip on the case. “The rent’s paid until the end of the month,” he said. ‘I’ll call the landlord tomorrow and get the agreement changed into your name.”

He doubted Bal would be able to make the monthly rent, since he didn’t have a job (there not be much work out there for his speciality; not that Cas actually knew what that was). But that was down to him.

He would probably go home to his parents, with some tail of woe and neglect, and how he needed a safe space to pull his life back together.

He wondered if they’d believe it. 

Bal could be very convincing.

It was when you didn’t think so anymore that he showed his true colours.

“You little shit,” he snarled. “You’re lucky I put up with you this long. Face it, Cas, you don’t have that much going for you. I stayed for your wallet, darling, and because I liked the way you moaned when I fucked you through the mattress. Liked the way you opened your legs for me whenever I asked. But, to be honest, _darling_ , you were starting to bore me!”

Cas feel tears sting at his eyes, and he blinked them away furiously.

He tried to push past Bal. “Well, maybe you can find somebody less boring, and just as accommodating, who’ll pay your way.”

He wasn’t ready for Bal pushing him hard, shoving him against the other wall, and then pulling back to take a swing at him.

Bal, it seemed, had forgotten they weren’t alone in the apartment. _He_ wasn’t ready for Dean to yell at him and launch himself forward.

But Bal certainly wasn’t ready for Cas to drop his case and knee him hard in the groin.

Bal dropped to his knees, hands clutching his jewels. He was wheezing, his face gray.

Dean seemed frozen to the spot, a near comical look on his face. 

Cas eyed him warily. “Are you really an FBI agent?”

Dean wordlessly took his ID from his pocket, and held out it for Cas to see properly this time.

“Is that assault?”

“Yes,” Bal panted. He looked like he was going to be sick. “It’s assault. This little fuck assaulted me. I want him…. I want him arrested.”

Dean came closer, and Cas sagged back against the wall. Cheated on, threatened, and now arrested. All in one day. Add to that he was now, technically, homeless.

But it was Bal who received Dean’s attention. 

“Actually, that was self defence. If I arrest anybody today, it’s going to be you. _Sweetie_.”

He picked up Cas’s case and handed it back to him. “You coming?”

Cas nodded, and Dean opened the door and let him out first.

As they started down the stairs, he heard Dean give a loud huff.

“What?”

Dean shook his head. “Not how I imagined today was going to go. I mean, I knew Nick was up to something…. Okay, I guess I knew it was that. But, uh…. Yeah.”

Cas nodded. “I guess we both got a rude awakening.” He glanced back once, up to where he has used to sleep, not even live. _And a lucky escape_. Even if it had been late in coming.

They said nothing else until they were outside, and Cas stopped. He had not been arrested, but he had everything he owned in a suitcase and nowhere to go.

Dean seemed to sense his unease. “You okay? Where are you sleeping tonight?”

Cas looked away. How could he admit how stupid he’d been? He doubted Dean had let his boyfriend lay claim to every part of his life, and then leave himself without anywhere to stay.

“Right,” Dean said. He looked around them, and spotted a coffee shop across the street. “You’re paying the rent on that apartment? And you really don’t have anywhere else to go?”

Cas didn’t know what to say. He shrugged. 

Dean took his arm, and the suitcase, and got Cas across the road, and into the coffee shop. He sat Cas down, and a moment later there was a cup of sugary tea in front of him.

“Drink that,” he said. “You got your door keys?”

Yes. Cas pulled them out of his pocket, where he’d put them without thinking after letting Dean in. He handed them over.

“Okay. I’ll be back in five minutes. You wait here for me.”

He was gone, striding through the people waiting to be served, and then darting across the road, getting honked by a car that got a little close.

Cas sipped his tea. He didn’t know what Dean was trying to accomplish. But while he was in there, he could ring Gabriel. His brother had a spare room; while Cas knew Gabriel would never see him with nowhere to stay, his brother had what he claimed to be a Bohemian lifestyle.

Cas wasn’t entirely sure that the word meant what Gabriel thought it to mean, since Gabriel’s lifestyle was mostly a disorganised freefall. But he knew one thing, that his brother was happy, and that mattered to Cas more than anything.

Gabriel would take care of him. When Cas had needed him, his older brother had always been there. 

That was when he heard shouting from across the street. He looked up and saw Bal storming into the street. He had his own suitcase in his arms, not fully closed, and he looked angrier than Cas had even seen him.

Dean was on his heels, and while Cas could only hear sounds and not words, he could tell well enough what Dean was saying.

Bal turned the corner and was gone.

Cas stared firmly at his tea, cheeks hot, until he knew Dean was standing over him. His keys were put back down onto the table, and Dean sat down across from him.

Some people stared; Cas could feel them. But when he looked up, it was Dean who drew and held his attention.

“I took his keys, but you should get the landlord to change the locks, in case he’s got a copy.”

Cas was grateful when Dean cast a glance out of the window, as if he wanted it make sure Bal had really gone.

“You didn’t have to do that.”

Dean shrugged. “Why should you have to go when that piece of…. When somebody like that’s staying in the apartment you’re paying for?”

Cas finished his tea. Dean seemed impatient, suddenly, and Cas supposed he was a busy man. A federal agent. And this morning, he had found out his partner was cheating on him too.

“Will you be alright?”

Dean seemed almost surprised by the enquiry. “Yeah. Yeah, I’ll be fine. Look…. Cas, is it?”

Cas nodded. Dean took a card from his pocket, and turned it over, and wrote something quickly on the back. He held it out. “My work and my personal cell numbers. If he comes back, call me. I don’t think he will, but…”

Cas took the card. He could deal with Bal, if he came back, but it would have been ignorant to refuse an offer of help. And maybe Dean needed to take something positive from this encounter as well, given how he’d been treated by someone Cas could tell he cared for.

Dean stood up. “I’ve gotta get back, but you need anything. Call me. I’m sorry, Cas.”

Cas stood up. He held out his hand, and Dean shook it. “Me, too. I hope you’ll be alright.”

Dean smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. He nodded once, and then he was gone.

Cas picked up his keys, and crossed the street, and let himself back in. He put Dean’s card down on the table, and stared at it for a moment.

Then he picked up his cell. He had calls to make; Gabriel, to let him know what had happened. The landlord, to get the locks changed. His bank, to change his accounts back into his name only.

And maybe in a few days, he would call Dean. To make sure he was okay, because Cas didn’t know if there was anybody else in his life to make sure that he was. Cas figured he owed him that, at least.

_One Year Later_

Gabriel seemed to think the play had gone well. Cas was no judge of the arts, not really, but he did wish Gabriel had told him it was an all _naked_ performance of Hamlet.

It was not how he’d planned for Dean to meet his brother, but at least now the show was over Gabriel had put on some clothes.

As Dean helped Benny bring their drinks back from the bar, Gabriel nudged his brother’s arm playfully.

“So, he sat through a couple of hours of depressed Danish people and nude Shakespeare and still hung around? I like this one, baby brother. I think he’s a keeper.”

Cas met Dean’s eyes. These days, when Dean smiled, it was there too.

“So do I,” he said, and shifted over to make room. “So do I.”


End file.
